"We're absolutely on top of all the movies," he said. "We never contradict [or] replicate - we will be flowing in between them, maybe occasionally we'll throw something in that foreshadows [or] echoes, but we're very much beholden to the Marvel cinematic universe."

ABC president Paul Lee has claimed that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is "driven by character" and has "relationships at the heart of it".

"Everything has to push character forward, including action," Whedon affirmed. "We don't want 'spectacle' characters, we want... spectacle that addresses character. We always want the two to mix."

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will air on Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC this fall.